Tea at Trianon: Communion and Ecclesial Governance

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Communion and Ecclesial Governance

From First Things:

Thompson’s actions provoked misleading responses from the press and even high-profile Catholics. Many described the story as if the archbishop had simply removed the “Catholic” label from the high school—as if the archdiocese were merely some religious corporation unhappy with the abuse of its trademark by an underperforming franchise. But the Church is more than a market of competing ecclesial brands. The controversy between the religious order and the bishop concerns fundamental notions of ecclesiology and the nature of the Church as communio. It concerns the school's connection to the true Body of Christ through its communion with the one “presiding in place of God.”

Too often, modern ecclesiology understands the Church as a kind of social club. But communion is not established merely by the self-identification of the believer. Communion is an act of God’s grace. Grace permits the believer’s union with the Body of Christ and manifests itself in the external unities of faith, of sacraments, and of ecclesial governance. The Code of Canon Law insists that the baptized are in “full communion” with the Church only when they are “joined with Christ in his visible body, through the bonds of profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical governance.”

In other words, part of our communion with God is found in our visible communion with those who govern the Church, including (and even especially) our diocesan bishop. Central to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council was the reinvigoration of the bishop’s role as teacher, prophet, and ruler in his diocese. The conciliar fathers repeated the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch, who said that being a diocesan bishop means “presiding in place of God over the flock.” The Council reminded religious orders—even those of pontifical right, like the Jesuits—of their duty to “show reverence and obedience to bishops according to the sacred canons.” Religious priests make this promise almost word-for-word when they “promise respect and obedience to the diocesan Bishop” in the rite of ordination. (Read more.)